On October 23, 2006, the
Dallas Cowboys were taking on division rivalry New York Giants. Drew Bledsoe
had been stinking it up the entire season and most fans wanted to see the young
backup quarterback Tony Romo. Romo had an amazing preseason that year and
dazzled Cowboys nation with great throws, and even better athleticism. In
comparison to Drew Bledsoe’s two left feet, Romo was Michael Vick! It was that
Giants game when Coach Bill Parcels has seen enough of Bledsoe and turned to
Romo. Tony Romo would go onto have a great career with the Cowboys. More importantly,
Romo was the savior of the franchise after seeing Troy Aikman retire. Fast
forward 10 years and the Cowboys may have found them their next Troy Aikman.
While Tony Romo had a great career, it wasn’t without turmoil.
He struggled in the postseason. Missed most of the 2010 and 2015 seasons with a
broken collarbone. Throw in that Romo didn’t practice much of the 2014 season
because he had a fractured bone in his back. The guy that was sent here to save
the Cowboys from the slums was damaged goods and the Cowboys knew it.
The Cowboys understood that Romo wasn’t going to be able
to physically play too many more years in the NFL. He may have wanted to gut it
out, in an attempt to win a super bowl title. After going 4-12 in 2015 the
Cowboys couldn’t put the franchise in the hands of Matt Cassel, Brandon Weedon,
or Kellen Moore again if Romo went down. They went into the 2016 draft with the
intentions on getting a quarterback that they could groom to be Tony Romo’s
replacement. Carson Wentz and Jared Goff were the two best quarterbacks in the
draft that year. The Cowboys didn’t want to use up resources to move up to the
one or two spots to grab one of them. They had they eye on Paxton Lynch later
in the draft if he fell to a spot that the Cowboy’s deemed reasonable enough to
make a move back into the round to get him. Lynch fell to the 26th
pick of the first round, but it was Denver that was able to pull of the move to
land Lynch. As a Cowboy’s fan I’m glad it happened that way. What did happen
was the beginning of something special.
The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff was tasked with coaching
the Senior Bowl in 2016 and it was there they found a gem. Dak Prescott was one
of the quarterbacks that participated in the 2016 senior bowl game. The Cowboys
coaching staff had to choose between Jacoby Brissette, Jake Coker, Brandon
Allen and Dak Prescott. Let’s be honest, aside from Brissette, who attended
small time North Carolina State, there was no way the Cowboys couldn’t go with
Dak Prescott. He played in the SEC at Mississippi State University. In 2014 Prescott,
lead the Bulldogs to a #1 ranking four straight weeks before losing to Alabama.
That year the Bulldogs finished with a 10-2 record and lost their bowl game.
Prescott had the talent and a college resume that put him in front of those
other guys.
The Cowboys coaching staff was extremely impressed with
Dak Prescott when they conducted the initial interviews with the team.
Quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson said “By far Dak was the most assertive and
confident player in there”, “Whatever that 'it' factor is, he had it above the
other three. Very confident and very poised in the interview process,” when
talking about Prescott at the senior bowl. The Cowboys liked Dak so much that
they invited him in for a private workout before the draft. It’s been
documented that the Cowboys really wanted Johnny Manziel in 2014, but instead
went with Zack Martin. The Cowboy also wanted Paxton Lynch in 2016, but instead
went with Zeke at number four, and took Dak in the 4th round. Maybe
I should be blogging about the JAGs (Just A Guy) that the Cowboys avoided
drafting.
Kellen Moore broke his leg early in training camp and was
supposed to be the backup quarterback behind Tony Romo. The backup quarterback was
a very important position because of Romo’s injury concerns. Moore going down
elevated Prescott to the number two spot. The Cowboys could have gone out and
signed a veteran quarterback but they didn’t. Tony Romo didn’t play the first preseason
game, for precautionary reasons. Romo played three drives in the second preseason
game and then was injured in the third preseason game. If Romo wasn’t playing
that much in the preseason who was? Dak Prescott!
Prescott was lighting the league on fire in the 2016
preseason. Fans began to understand why the team didn’t go out and bring in a
veteran quarterback when Moore went down. They also began to see what the team
had in a 4th round rookie quarterback. Prescott came in for an injured
Romo in the third preseason game, against a Seahawks team that smelled blood in
the water, and held his own. He was chosen to be the Cowboys starter while Romo
recovered from another injury. The Cowboys took Dak because they didn’t know
when Romo would have to hang up his cleats. There was no way they would know
that he wouldn’t even make it out of preseason. Romo was scheduled to miss 6-10
weeks and the Cowboys couldn’t afford another 4-12 season. What were they going
to do? Who was going to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys? Dak Prescott!
Dak Prescott took over as the starting quarterback in
2016 and hasn’t looked back. Some fans viewed him as a placeholder until Romo
came back. Some fans didn’t think he was good enough to be a starting
quarterback. In his first season, all he did was break Tom Brady’s record for
most pass attempts completed without an interception to start a career. He also
lead the Cowboys on a 11-game win streak, to the best record in football, and
the number one overall seed in the NFC conference. That was just some of the
things that Dak did in his first season.
Now 24 games into his young career, Dak Prescott ranks third
behind Kurt (104.9) Warner and Dan Marino (103.8) with a 102.3 quarterback
rating over that time. That’s great company to be in! In two seasons he has
completed 66% of his passes, has an interception ratio of 1.1 (39 TDs-8 Ints),
and has won 18 of his 24 games. He also has more rushing touchdowns than any
other quarterback since entering the league (10). What else does Prescott need to do before we
start putting him up there with the other great young quarterbacks? I will
agree that Wentz appears to be a special talent. Cam Newton and Russell Wilson
have already accomplished great things in this league. The question is how do
you stop a quarterback that runs like Cam, throws on the run like Wilson, and
has the accuracy of Rogers? The short answer is you don’t, the long answer is
that we will see where he stacks up after winning a super bowl or two!
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